Cabot may soon no longer be a “bedroom community” where most of its residents commute to work in Little Rock or elsewhere.
Under a plan that will re-evaluate the direction of the city’s economic development, officials will seek the public’s input and perhaps help attract some manufacturing companies in hopes of creating jobs and making the town more self-sufficient.
An upcoming website will survey residents’ interests to find out what Cabot needs.
“We have never done any kind of survey to find out what they want their hometown to be. Do they want only commercial business to support them when they come home? Do they want to remain — and I hate to say this — a bedroom community? Or do they want us to try to get some light industry here?” said Alderman Ed Long, who is one of six city council members on a new community development committee.
Alderman Kevin Davis, the chairman of the committee, said the group will pursue short-term, midterm and long-term goals. If it’s successful, it will transform the character of the city and complement the vast economic achievement it has seen in the last two decades.
City officials want to develop areas near the new baseball parks and swimming-pool complex that are underway on Hwy. 321. Picture an ice-cream parlor and restaurants for after a day at the pool and a beauty salon to visit when you’ve dropped the kids off for a game. That will sell itself. The railroad overpass on Hwy. 367 is also an area that will be targeted.
But the undertaking is not without risks. Long said a consultant will likely be hired to help attract companies to Cabot. In a flat economy when relatively few manufacturing plants are opening anywhere in the U.S., a consultant could prove futile.
Jacksonville has had an economic consultant for more than four years. With a salary of about $90,000 a year, he’s produced very little. (Though some of the consultant’s most loyal supporters say Sherwood benefitted greatly from the deal when two restaurants decided to locate there because of less restrictive liquor laws instead of in the town that generously compensates him.)
The Cabot City Council won’t be so easily strung along and will ask tough questions when the time comes to hiring and overseeing a business consultant.
Mayor Bill Cypert has said that the chamber of commerce shouldn’t be burdened with the hefty task of bringing in new businesses. He feels the chamber should focus on its current members’ needs rather than on economic development.
Meanwhile, in Sherwood, which in the last couple of years has opened two new restaurants — On the Border and Buffalo Wild Wings — and a light manufacturer — Custom Aircraft Cabinets — with help from chamber-based economic-development specialists paid for with modest additional funding from the city.
As the economy continues to improve, however slowly, it’s reassuring that communities are making plans to grow with new housing and more job opportunities. Jacksonville, ever-ready for a new approach, has the additional benefit of forming a new and better school district.
Good results are possible, and we look forward to reporting on them. We are ready for prosperity.
